Kampong Sungai Akar is a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
in
Brunei-Muara District
Brunei-Muara District ( ms, Daerah Brunei dan Muara; Jawi: برونائی-موارا ضلع) or simply Brunei-Muara is one of the four districts of Brunei. It has the smallest area among the four districts, with , yet is the most populous, wi ...
,
Brunei
Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...
, as well as a
neighbourhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural are ...
in the capital
Bandar Seri Begawan
Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB; Jawi: بندر سري بڬاوان; ) is the capital city of Brunei. It is officially a municipal area () with an area of and an estimated population of 100,700 as of 2007. It is part of Brunei-Muara District, the sm ...
. The population was 5,467 in 2016.
Name
According to folk tale, there used to be many
snakes
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joi ...
, especially in the rivers, whether small snakes or big snakes like the swallow snake. The elders understood the snake as a 'akar', so the name Kampung Sungai Akar arose because if given the name of Kampung Sungai Ular, it would certainly not sound good.
Administration
Kampong Sungai Akar is one of the villages under
Mukim Berakas 'B'
Mukim Berakas 'B' is a mukim in Brunei-Muara District, Brunei. The population was 40,710 in 2016.
Background
The mukim and Mukim Berakas 'A' were originally one mukim by the name 'Mukim Berakas' before being split into the current divisions i ...
, a
mukim
A mukim is a type of administrative division used in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The word ''mukim'' is a loanword in English. However, it was also originally a loanword in Malay from the Arabic word: (meaning ''resident''). The clo ...
in Brunei-Muara District. It has the
postcode
A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...
BC4115.
The village has also been subsumed under the
municipal area of the capital Bandar Seri Begawan.
Demography
According to the population census conducted by the Department of Statistics, Department of Planning and Economic Development in 2011, the total population in Kampong Sungai Akar is 6,336 people, namely 3,788 males and 2,458 females.
Infrastructure
Several government offices are located in the village such as the
Radio Television Brunei
Radio Television Brunei ( ms, Radio Televisyen Brunei, Jawi: راديو تيليۏيشين بروني, officially abbreviated as RTB) is the national public broadcaster of Brunei. Radio Brunei made its first broadcast on 2 May 1957, with a tel ...
Department (RTB), the Land Transport Department and the Gurkha Reserve Unit. In addition, there are also secondary and primary schools, namely Freda Radin School, Stella School, PGGMB School and Arab Secondary School.
The village mosque is Rashidah Sa'adatul Bolkiah Mosque and it was inaugurated by
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on 19 July 2013.
The mosque was built at a cost of around
B$3.2 million (US$2.4 million as of October 2021).
It can accommodate 1,000 worshippers.
Achievements
On 19 February 2010, Kampong Sungai Akar was announced as the champion and became an exemplary village in the Cleanliness and Beauty Contest for villages under Mukim Berakas 'B'.
In addition, this village has also successfully collected donations amounting to BND1,459 for the collection of donations for the Indonesian earthquake and the Philippine storm which collection was held for a month starting from 19 November 2009 until 19 December 2009.
The Muslim women of this village mosque have also succeeded in winning the Murattal Al-Quran team competition for the Muslim women of Brunei and Muara district mosques on 9 February 2015.
Notes
References
Villages in Brunei-Muara District
Neighbourhoods in Bandar Seri Begawan
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